To the sea! To the sea!

May 31, 2011 by
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The urge kicks in no later than Memorial Day: to hear the ceaseless roar of waves, to sift the sand between your toes, to eat of the shelled and the finned (maybe washed down with a pint of the foamy). Here in the land-locked portion of Massachusetts, I often just have to make do with the eating part.  Luckily, it's… read more

Magazine indexing

May 29, 2011 by
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You may have noticed a proliferation of Cook's Illustrated and Bon Appetit magazines in the EYB Library's latest indexed list. Now that we have the ability to index magazines we have several indexers making their way through piles of old magazines. We've been running a survey on the Community page to find out from you which magazines you'd like indexed. The… read more

Cookbook awards season

May 29, 2011 by
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Just as January and February are movie awards months with the Golden Globes, BAFTAs and the Oscars so May and June are cookbook awards months. The season kicked off on Friday night with the prestigious James Beard Awards event in New York City. We have a list of all the nominees and winners. Next on June 2 the international cookbook awards will… read more

Love-hate relationship with a cookbook–and it’s only day 1.

May 24, 2011 by
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Today I'm wrestling with an intriguing newcomer: The Cook's Book of Intense Flavors, by Robert and Molly Krause.  The premise of the book is fascinating: 101 unusual, vivid flavor combinations and recipes to go with them. Each combination gets a thought-provoking character précis.  Coffee, fig, and vinegar are characterized as "full-bodied complexity"; mushroom, rose and lavender as "opposites attract".  Some are… read more

More new developments

May 20, 2011 by
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We put up a new release last night with another new feature.  You can now view all comments for recipes under the Notes tab for a book.  The total number of Notes (shown next to the speech bubble) includes all recipe notes. At the top of Notes we have also added back the EYB comments which got accidentally dropped in… read more

What sells in summer?

May 19, 2011 by
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Every so often I have a look at the bestseller lists for cookbooks.  It keeps me honest--if the books people are buying aren't the books that I'm recommending, I should know why, even if that doesn't change my opinion about the books themselves. If you asked me what sells in summer, I'd probably say: eat-local books, grill books, ice cream… read more

New developments on EYB

May 17, 2011 by
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Many of you will be pleased that we have just released some much-requested features: Indexing of Magazines - we will shortly have the entire Cooks Illustrated collection indexed.   Bon Appétit, Gourmet, Cooking Lightand Delicious (UK) following soon.  Where a magazine recipe is attributed to an author we list that author so you will be able to include all recipes from a favorite author in your recipe… read more

DIY Cooking

May 16, 2011 by
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People get ambitious in the summer.  Vistas of leisure time seem to beckon, although all too often they turn out to be illusions.  Some of us decide to build decks.  Some of us buy packs of vegetable starts, which we convince ourselves will not succumb to pest attacks, July drought, and choking by weeds.  And some of us take on… read more

Alan Davidson

May 15, 2011 by
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Bruce Palling - Food columnist for the Wall Street Journal Europe looks at the life of the late Alan Davidson and recalls some memorable meetings with him.  Bruce has his own blog, Gastronenophile where you can read extended versions of his WSJ articles - including his 20+ course meal at Noma and an interview with Nathan Myhrvold at The Fat Duck.  Later this month (March 24), a library… read more

“How” books

May 9, 2011 by
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In today's mailbox were two bits of nonfiction from the shadowy waysides of the cookbook industry: food memoir and food exposé.  I call them "how" books, as opposed to "how-to" books.  That's because of their subtitles, which tell you so much about the content that they almost save you the trouble of reading it. Exhibit A is Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial… read more

Looking out for number one

May 3, 2011 by
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It was just a little over a year ago, I think, that Judith Jones' little book came out--The Pleasures of Cooking For One seemed charming, quirky, contrarian in an age of conspicuous entertainment.  But like any successful species, the "Serves 1" book has survived to produce offspring, and this year brings at least two more. Joe Yonan's Serve Yourself makes liberal use of… read more
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